3 Movies Like Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)

The Station Agent is about loneliness, change and friendship. Sounds corny right? It’s not. The characters are developed, they have their own reasons for the choices they make and nothing feels forced, neither actions or conversations. It’s a small and wonderful movie about a little man that moves out of the city and his comfort zone when his only friend dies, moves to said friend’s old train station and sets his life there. From there on it follows his social interactions with a slew of people, the relationships he forms with them. Oh, and the little man? Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), who pulls off a great performance, albeit a quiet one.

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Actor: Bobby Cannavale, Ileen Getz, Jase Blankfort, Jayce Bartok, Jeremy Bergman, Joe Lo Truglio, John Slattery, Josh Pais, Lynn Cohen, Maile Flanagan, Marla Sucharetza, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Paul Benjamin, Paula Garces, Peter Dinklage, Raven Goodwin, Richard Kind

Director: Tom McCarthy

Rating: R

Robert Downey Jr's triumphant return to film, this movie is a satirical take on film noir and detective movies in general. The screen chemistry between Gay Perry the private eye, played by Val Kilmer, and Downey Jr's robber turned actor, Harry Lockhart, is hysterical, and the film's tongue in cheek nature is witty, smart, and delivers. Directed by the man who directed Lethal Weapon, the action is top notch, the laughs are pretty much constant, and the mystery is compelling. It's mind boggling that nobody saw this when it came out.

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Actor: Ali Hillis, Angela Lindvall, Ariel Winter, Ben Hernandez Bray, Bill McAdams Jr., Brendan Fehily, Brian Simpson, Cole S. McKay, Corbin Bernsen, Daniel Browning Smith, Dash Mihok, David Newsom, Evan Parke, Harrison Young, Indio Falconer Downey, Jake McKinnon, Joe Keyes, Josh Richman, Judie Aronson, Kathy Lamkin, Larry Miller, Laurence Fishburne, Lela Edgar, Martha Hackett, Michelle Monaghan, Nancy Fish, Robert Downey Jr., Rockmond Dunbar, Saida Pagan, Shannyn Sossamon, Stephanie Pearson, Tanja Reichert, Teresa Maria Herrera, Val Kilmer, Vincent Laresca, Wiley M. Pickett

Director: Shane Black

Rating: R

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s new movie is about an arrogant European artist who tattoos a Syrian man's back, essentially turning the man's body into artwork. 

The man, as a commodity, is able to travel the world freely to be in art galleries, something as a simple human with a Syrian passport he couldn’t do. Seems unlikely? It’s based on a true story.

But Ben Hania is not really interested in the political statement aspect of this unlikely stunt. Instead, she looks at what this would do to a human-being, to the man's self-esteem, his relationships, and the turns his life takes. It's a fascinating movie.

Genre: Drama

Actor: Adrienne Mei Irving, Anissa Daoud, Christian Vadim, Darina Al Joundi, Fayçal Hassaĭri, Husam Chadat, Ichraq Matar, Ingo Brosch, Jacques Germain, Jan Dahdouh, Koen De Bouw, Marc de Panda, Monica Bellucci, Nadim Cheikhrouha, Najoua Zouhair, Patrick Albenque, Rupert Wynne-James, Yahya Mahayni

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania